Mutual funds

The average 401(k) plan balance at the end of the first quarter was up 40% from the year-earlier period, according to Fidelity highlights from its first quarter 2010 401(k) figures.

The SEC, FINRA and national securities exchanges are proposing individual circuit-breakers for every stock available in the U.S. They would set in if a security price moves 10% or more in a five-minute period.

New distribution momentum in bank brokerages and other intermediary channels is a source of good news for T. Rowe, which has been successfully rebuilding its assets under management while it expands its presence overseas.

Putnam Investments will reveal all of the fees in the defined contribution plans it manages through a new sponsor website that launches next month.

A Fidelity Investments poll of broker/dealers and RIA firms found 86% intend to accelerate firm growth and profitability this year by hiring more advisers and brokers, in addition to building new and existing client relationships. Only 2% say eliminating or cutting non-essential costs will be the biggest driver of profitability this year, compared to 27% in 2009.

State Street Global Advisors and Nuveen Investments launched an exchange-traded fund tracking Build America Bonds Thursday, as investment vehicles devoted to taxable municipal debt continue to proliferate.

FINRA Eyes Action Against Firms Selling Municipal Bonds

Municipal bond mutual funds continued to garner cash last week despite the flight from risk that has driven most of the flows this month.

It wasn’t a hedge fund, a proprietary trading desk at an investment bank or a rogue trader that may have been the key trigger behind the “flash crash,” one-thousand-point drop in the Dow.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp., does not agree with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to file charges against it in connection with an industry-wide investigation of guaranteed investment contracts and derivatives, but is discussing the matter, including a “potential resolution,” with SEC staff.

Money market mutual funds ended their 18-week losing streak as investors sought the safety of cash in increasingly volatile markets. Total money fund assets rose by $24.23 billion to $2.878 trillion for the week ending May 12, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Declining annuity premiums mean insurers may have to rethink their annuities products in order to survive, according to a report by Scott Hawkins, vice president and insurance analyst at Conning Research & Consulting in Hartford, Conn.

Fidelity Investments has launched a corporate bond fund with retail and adviser shares.

Nearly 58% of asset management firms are using hybrid wholesalers as they increase in scale and opportunity, according to a new study from the New York research firm kasina.

T. Rowe Price is gaining new market share as banks and other intermediaries move to a fees-and-advice model, and as the mutual fund company makes a concentrated push overseas to rebuild its assets under management.

Wealth management veteran, Lawrence E. Gore, joined Wilmington Trust as the newest managing director and senior private client advisor for the company’s wealth advisory services business in the Northeast. He will work out of the firm’s New York office.

According to monthly data assets held in U.S. exchange-traded funds rose 2.9% from a month earlier to $830 billion.

Recent revelations such as those involving Goldman Sachs demonstrate that when it comes to investing, many commercial banks, pension funds, endowments and other institutions are not sophisticated.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have created a joint panel to study last Thursday's mysterious "flash crash," as well as other emerging regulatory issues.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan filed a briefing with the high court last year asking it not to accept an appellate decision affirming the Gartenberg standard in the Jones vs. Harris Associates case.